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‘Low ILUC-Risk’ as a Sustainability Standard for Biofuels in the EU

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Indirect land use change (ILUC) can add significantly to biofuels’ carbon footprint, and the EU has implemented measures to limit ILUC arising from its energy policy. The paper argues that ‘low ILUC-risk’ certification could be positioned as a gold standard of biofuel sustainability, as it minimises biofuels’ impacts on food markets and on ILUC, and offers possible co-benefits through the adoption of more sustainable farming practices.

In the paper we develop policy-focussed recommendations for the low ILUC-risk framework — these are intended to boost its attractiveness and applicability to feedstock producers around the EU and beyond, and strengthen its environmental safeguards.

For instance, we discuss how the crediting methodology could manage seasonal variability in on-farm yields; the connection between low ILUC-risk and the EU Renewable Energy Directive’s ‘Annex IX’; provisions to facilitate the certification process; and more…

Read the paper

 

Low ILUC pilots and guidance

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The final deliverables from Cerulogy’s work with Guidehouse on low ILUC-risk biofuels for the European Commission has now been published. The published documents include reports from five low ILUC-risk pilot audits, certification guidance and a discursive report.

Low ILUC-risk documents

 

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Hydrogen Delivered Lifecycle Analysis Tool

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Cerulogy worked with the Clean Air Task Force to develop an online tool to allow users to explore the lifecycle emissions of conventional and renewable hydrogen production. It allows users to review the full lifecycle emissions of hydrogen while changing a number of assumptions, including the methane leakage rate for natural gas supply, the electricity source for electrolysis processes, and the modelled global warming potential of methane and of hydrogen itself.

H2 LCA calculator

 

Review paper on permanent carbon removals

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Cerulogy is working for the European Commission Directorate General for Climate Action in partnership with ICF and Fraunhofer ISI on the development of EU certification methodologies for permanent carbon removals. The first document published from this ongoing project is a review of existing certification methodologies for carbon dioxide reductions and removals and of relevant EU legislation. You can download the report from the website of the EU Expert Group on Carbon Removals.

Review papers

The review paper was discussed at a meeting of the Expert Group on Carbon Removals in October 2023. Below is a link to the recording of the first day of the meeting, where Dr Malins presented the review paper and chaired discussions on carbon removals with DACCS and BECCS.

Expert group meeting

High and low ILUC risk – technical assistance to the European Commission

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Since 2020, Cerulogy has been working for the European Commission Directorate General for Energy, as part of a consortium led by Guidehouse, on a re-assessment of which biofuel feedstocks should be identified as high indirect land use change risk under the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive and on the development of certification guidelines for low indirect land land use change risk biofuel projects.

Low ILUC-risk report
High ILUC-risk report

Supporting the Innovation Fund

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Since 2020, Dr Malins has been supporting the development and implementation of the greenhouse gas emissions avoidance calculation methodology of the EU Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for innovative low carbon projects, with expected funding of around €40 billion in the period 2020 to 2030. Below is a link to a recording of the Info Day for the 2023 Innovation Fund calls, where Dr Malins presented on the calculation rules for Energy Intensive Industries projects and for carbon capture and storage of utilisation.

Innovation Fund 2023 Call Info Day

Scrutinising the future role of alternative fuels in delivering aviation decarbonisation

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Alternative fuels have been identified as an important tool to reduce the climate change impact of the aviation industry, but there are many challenges associated with increasing the production and use of these fuels in a sustainable way. In this series of reports for the Aviation Environment Federation we discuss issues relating to the lifecycle analysis of alternative fuels, to the use of wastes and by-products as feedstock for alternative fuels, and to the commercialisation and expansion of an alternative aviation fuel industry.

Download from AEF

Modelling Clean Fuel Standards in the USA

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Clean fuel standards (CFSs) and low-carbon fuel standards (LCFSs) are regulations which oblige fuel suppliers to meet a gradually tightening target for the average emissions intensity of their fuels. CFSs already exist (or are under consideration) in several USA states and in Canada.

Cerulogy has developed a model for the USA’s road transport sector covering the period 2015-50 (aviation is included in later iterations). This is a flexible, user-oriented tool for building CFS scenarios covering any USA state or the country as a whole.

The ‘technical annex’ linked here introduces the model, detailing its capabilities and its underlying workings. These are demonstrated by considering a hypothetical national CFS operating from 2025, incorporating outputs from the Annual Decarbonization Perspective 2022. The illustrative scenario achieves a nominal 98% reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from road transport fuels by 2050 (including CCS credits and treating renewable electricity as zero-emissions).

Download the Technical Annex
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BIKE biofuels

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BIKE is a multi-year project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Its aim is to assess the market potential of the EU’s low ILUC-risk concept – from practical, regulatory, and economic standpoints. The BIKE consortium includes expertise from academia, industry, international agencies, and the private sector.

Cerulogy has a leadership role in BIKE’s policy-oriented work package. Members of this work package have produced thirteen briefing notes in collaboration with the rest of the consortium, which examine different aspects of EU biofuels-related policy. These cover issues such as the integration of biofuels policy with agro-ecological safeguards, funding provisions for novel farming techniques, the emerging framework surrounding land-based carbon removals, and the use of terminology in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive.

The briefing notes are all available from the BIKE website.

Go to BIKE website
The cover image for 'The fat of the land'; cows and round Cerulogy chickens are pictured in front of an industrial facility.Cerulogy, 2023

The fat of the land

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This study for the European Federation for Transport and the Environment (T&E) reviews the use of rendered animal fats by the EU biofuel industry, the impacts of this use on other animal fat consumers and the potential for this diversion of resources to cause indirect emissions. As featured on BBC news! You can read a press release by T&E based on the study here and an associated BBC news article here.

Download report